Project

A project is an endeavour to create a unique

product or service. Projects are a part of an
overall programme are broken down into well
defined activities, all of which must be
completed within a specified time along with
minimum cost.
Example: Construction of a bridge, residential
complex, mall, highway etc.
Planning, Scheduling and Controlling:
Before starting a project, it is necessary to schedule
the required activities in an efficient manner so as
to complete it on or before a specified time limit at
a minimum cost of its completion. Hence, before
starting, a project, it is necessary to prepare a plan
for scheduling and controlling the various activities.
Network Analysis/Scheduling Techniques:
Techniques of operations research are used for
planning, scheduling and controlling of project. Out
of these two techniques are PERT and CPM.
 Basic Concepts of Network Analysis:
• Activity
All projects may be viewed as being composed of operations or
tasks called activities. An activity is depicted by a single arrow
(→) on the project network. The activity arrows are called Arcs.
1. Predecessor Activity: An activity that must be completed
immediately prior to the start of another activity.
2. Successor Activity: An activity which starts immediately after
one or more of other activities are completed.
3. Dummy Activity: Many activities can be performed
simultaneously. It is possible that two activities could be
drawn by same beginning and end event. In such situations,
dummy activity is introduced.
 By convention, dummy activities are represented by a dashed
arrow on the project network and is inserted in the network to
clarify activity pattern in the following situations:
• When two or more activities run exactly in parallel such that they
would both start at the same event and finish at the same event,
a dummy would be inserted between the end of one of the
activities and the common finishing event.
• In some situations, a dummy activity is necessary to fully and
accurately represent the logic of a series of activities. For
example, if activity C follows activity A and activity D follows both
activities A and B, this cannot be represented without the aid of a
dummy.
Dummy Activity
• Case II

A C

B
D
• (B) EVENT:- An event represents the start
or the completion of an activity.

EVENT
ACTIVITY

BRUST EVENT

MERGE EVENT
 Types of Event
• Merge Event: When more than one activity comes
and joins, the event is known as merge event.
• Burst Event: When more than one activity leaves
an event, the event is known as a burst event.
• Merge and Burst Event: An activity may be a
merge and burst event simultaneously as with
respect to some activities it can be a merge event
and with respect to some other activities it may
be burst event.
Common errors in Network Diagramming

• There are three types of errors which are most

common in Network:
(a) Dangling: To disconnect an activity before the
completion of all activities in a project
network diagramming is known as Dangling.
• Dangling
• Looping: Looping is also known as Cycling
error in a network diagram. Drawing an
endless loop in a network diagram is known as
error of looping.
• Looping
• Redundancy: To provide unnecessary the
Dummy activity in a network logic is known as
the error of redundancy.
• Redundancy:
• Example:
Activity Predecessor activity
A None
B None
C A
D A
E B
F C
G D and E
A company has decided to redesign its electronic
components. The project involves several activities
which are listed in the following table.
First, the electronic engineering staff must finish the
design of the component.
Second, the marketing program for promoting the
component must be developed.
Third, a new manufacturing process must be
designed.
Fourth, advertising media must be selected.
Fifth, an initial production run must be successfully
completed.
Sixth, the component must be released to the
market.
Activity Name of the Pre-requisites Estimated time
Activity
1-2 A None 3
1-3 B None 5
1-4 C None 4
2-5 D A 2
3-5 E B 3
4-6 F C 9
5-7 G D, E 8
3-6 H B 7
6-7 I H, F 9
 Time estimates in Critical Path
Analysis
The basic objective of the time analysis is to get a
planned schedule of the project for which the
following factors should be known:
(i) Total completion time of the project.
(ii) Earliest time when each activity can begin.
(iii) Latest time when each activity can be started,
without delaying the total project completion time.
(iv) Float for each activity, i.e., amount of time by which
the completion of an activity can be delayed
without delaying the total project completion time.
(v) Identification of critical activities and critical path.
 TIME ANALYSIS IN CRITICAL PATH
METHOD(CONTD….)

Forward pass computations (earliest event time):

• Earliest occurrence time for
each event
Step1: the computations
begins from start node and
move towards the end
node. Assume earliest
occurrence time for initial
event is zero
Step2:(Es)ij=Ei
(Ef)ij=Ei+Dij
Ej=max(Ei+Dij)
Ei=Earliest time of event i
(Es)ij=earliest starting time
of activity i,j
Dij=Duration time of activity
i,j
(Ef)ij=Earliest finish time of
activity i,j
Ej=Earliest time of event j
TIME ANALYSIS IN CRITICAL PATH METHOD (Contd….)

Backward pass computation (latest event time):-

Latest event time indicates
the time by which all
activities entering into that
event must be completed
without delaying the total
project completion time
Step1:for ending event
assume E=L
Step2:(Lf)ij=Lj
Step3:(Ls)ij=Lj-Dij
Step4:(Li)=min((Lf)ij-Dij)
(Lj)=Latest time of
event j
(Lf)ij= Latest finish time
of activity I,j
(Ls)ij= Latest starting
time of activity I,j
(Li)= Latest time of
event i
 SLACK:-
Slack of an event is difference between the
latest time and earliest time of an event
Tail slack=Li-Ei (for tail event)

Head slack=Lj-Ej (for head event)

 Float of an Activity
There are mainly three types of floats as given
below:
1. Total Float. This is the most important type of
float as it is concerned with overall project-
duration. It may be defined as “the amount
of time by which completion of an activity
could be delayed ”.
Total Float = LSij – ESij
2. Free Float:
This is concerned with commencement of
subsequent activity. It is the “time by which
the completion of an activity can be delayed
beyond the earliest finish time without
affecting the earliest start of a subsequent
activity.”
Free Float = (Ej - Ei) - tij
3. Independent Float: It is the amount of time by
which the start of an activity can be delayed
without affecting the earliest start time of any
immediately successor activities, assuming
that the preceding activity has finished at its
latest finish time.

Independent Float = (Ej - Lj) - tij

 Critical Path Method
CPM (Critical Path Method), was developed by
M.R.Walker. They were concerned with the problem of
improving the scheduling techniques or projects. They
came up with arrow diagram as the most logical
representation of the interrelationship between the
jobs in a project to be executed in a well defined
sequence.
CPM emphasizes the relationship between applying
more resources to shorten the duration of given jobs in
a project and the increased cost of these additional
resources.
 Critical Event
The slack of an event is the difference
between the latest and earliest event times or
slack (i) = Li –Ei.
The events with zero slack time are known as
critical events.
 Critical Activities

The difference between the latest start time

and earliest start time of an activity will
indicate the amount of time by which the
activity can be delayed without affecting the
total project duration. This difference is called
as total float. Activities with zero total float
are known as critical activities.
 Critical Path
The sequence of critical activities in a network
is called critical path. The critical path is longest
“path in the network from the starting event to
ending event and defines the minimum time
required to complete the project.”
If the activities on critical path are delayed by a
day, the project also would be delayed by a day
unless the times of the future critical activities
are reduced by a day by different means.